Frozen novelty confectionaries, such as ice cream bars, are often formed with shell or coating of a candy-like material, such as chocolate. If the novelty bars do not have sticks inserted therein, the coating or enrobing process typically takes the form of conveying the frozen novelty along a metal mesh conveyor, with the conveyor passing under a "waterfall" of the melted coating material. This operation coats the top, front, back and sides of the bar. Slightly after passing of the novelty under the waterfall, the bottom of the novelty is contacted with a metal mesh conveyor or roller positioned within a bath of the coating material, to thereby coat the bottom portion of the novelty. The novelty is then passed to a chill tunnel for hardening of the coating material and is wrapped and packaged for shipment.
This enrobing system is economical, since the system includes apparatus for recapturing excess coating material from the waterfall which is not coated onto the novelties and recirculating this material. Low loss levels are thus the result.
While this system has been successfully employed with non-stick frozen novelties, the system has not met with success in the past with stick-type products. This is due, to the greatest degree, from the nature of the waterfall. The waterfall is continuous across the conveyor, which conveyor has a plurality of rows of novelties thereon, coating both the rows of novelties and the spaces therebetween, with the excess material passing through the metal mesh conveyor. If stick-type novelties were passed through such a system, the sticks, as well as the products, would be coated. Such a result is clearly unacceptable.
As a result, separate enrobing apparatus for coating stick-type novelties has been developed. Such enrobers are designed to dip or spray a stick-type novelty with the coating material while the novelty is held by its stick.
The dipping or spraying systems currently available have a number of drawbacks associated therewith. First, the systems are prone to splashing and/or spattering, due to the dipping action or the high-velocity spraying. Such is not the case in a gravity-type waterfall, where lower coating material velocities are employed. Thus, the dipping and spraying systems are "messy", i.e., a significant quantity of a coating material is not recaptured by the recirculation system. Rather, a significant quantity of this coating material winds up on the floor, walls and other components of the system. Such a result has the obvious impact of increasing maintenance and cleanup time, thereby increasing downtime for the system. Equally important, the lost coating material is wasted, thus increasing the cost of the novelty to the consumer.
There are other disadvantages associated with enrobing apparatus that require the product to be held by its stick during enrobing. Such a system requires that all novelties be oriented identically as they arrive to the enrobing means, so that the sticks thereof can be captured by the system. This limits the number of novelties that can be handled on the conveying apparatus upon which the products are initially extruded and passed to a freezer. Also, there is the chance of a novelty falling from the grasp of the enrobing apparatus and thus becoming waste.
It is thus a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for enrobing stick-type confectionary novelties using a waterfall enrobing apparatus.
It is also a primary objective of the present invention to enrobe stick-type confectionary novelties in a waterfall-type enrober without coating of the sticks.
It is also a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for enrobing stick-type novelties which do not require the novelties to be held by their sticks during coating thereof.
It is another primary objective of the present invention to increase the productivity of the novelty producing system by increasing the number of novelties which may be extruded onto its conveying mechanism and successfully handled by the system.